Athari - Essence of The Athari Methodology

Essence of The Athari Methodology

Imam Abu `Abdullah Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Hanbal has said regarding Muhammed's statements that Allah descends to the lowest heaven, that Allah will be seen on the day of Resurrection, and what resembles such statements. "We have faith and believe in them without how or meaning. We do not reject any of . We know that what the Messenger came with is the truth. We do not reject what the Messenger of Allah - sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam - has brought. Nor do we describe Allah with more than what He has described Himself without a limit or an end. 'Like Him there is naught. And He is the All-hearing, the All-seeing.' (42:1 1). We say as He has said and we describe Him as He has described Himself. We do not transgress that. The descriptions of men do not reach Him. We believe in the whole of the Qur'an - its definitive (mukham) and its equivocal (mutashabih). We do not separate from Him any of His attributes due to the protests of anyone. We do not transgress the Qur'an and the hadith. Nor do we know the reality of except by believing the Messenger - sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam - and affirming the Qur'an." In essence the names and attributes of Allah are affirmed on the following principles;

• without tashbih (establishing likeness)
• without takyeef (speculating as to "how" they are manifested in the divine)
• without ta'teel (negating/denying their apparent meaning)
• without ta'weel (giving it secondary/symbolic meaning which is different from the apparent meaning)

Ibn Qudamah further states after the hadith “Allah ta’ala will be seen on the day of judgement”, “and similar to these ahadith, we believe in them, and affirm them, without modality and meaning, and we don’t reject any of it”. Ibn Qudamah’s position was of consigning the Meaning (Tafweed al-Ma'nawiyya) and Consigning the How-ness of the Sifat (Tafweed al-Kayfiyya) to Allah alone. This is also known as the doctrine of Bila Kayf wala Ma’na: Without describing the How of it or delving into its meaning when related to the Sifat of Allah ta’ala. By definition the one who adheres to this methodology is thus known as a Mufawwid on the Sifat of Allah. While the Athari Creed and the Salafi Creed are essentially the same, the only difference in the manner of Tafweed. The Athari consign the meaning and modality (Tafweed al-Ma'nawiyya and al-Kayfiyya) to Allah allah alone. The Salafi affirm the literal meaning of the verse, and only consign the modality (Tafweed al-Kayfiyya) to Allah.

The highly influential modern day American Islamic scholar, trained in Al Azhar, Suhaib Webb discussed the essential texts of the Athari creed in his popular website where he mentioned;

"The most important Athari text is the Tahawiyah, then the introduction to Aqidah found in the Epistle of Abi Zaid al-Qayrawani, the Lum’a of Imam al-Maqdasi, the works of Ibn Taymiyah and so on. I would also strongly encourage one to read Imam Hassan al-Banna’s Epistle on Aqida and the recent work of Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi "The differences between the creed of the salaf and the creed of the khalaf.""